Recent, well publicized, security breaches have highlighted the need for improved security techniques to protect consumer privacy and secure digital assets. Examples of organizational victims of cybercrime include well known companies that typically have traditional Web security in place, yet cyber criminals have still been able to obtain personal data from financial, healthcare, retail, and academic Web sites.
Organizations can not afford negative brand image, credibility damage, legal consequences, or customers losses. The disclosure of some of these Web security breaches has led law enforcement to determine, after careful investigation, that cybercrime is in some instances being driven by organized crime that can dedicate significant resources toward attempting to circumvent security systems. Targeted rings of well educated and sophisticated hackers have been uncovered, often in countries where prosecuting them is a challenge. Contributing to the increase in cybercrime is the ease with which these organized cyber criminals can target, and hack, a Web application from anywhere in the world with simple Internet access.
Properly securing Web applications and the data behind them is a critical component to doing business on the Web. Often, some of the most valuable organizational data is served through a Web browser making it more important than ever to safeguard this information from cybercriminals.
Thus, there is a need for improved systems and techniques to protect Web applications from security breaches.